Organ Trafficking News

Latest news about organ trafficking. All news about the illegal trade in organs is collected from security agencies, criminal justice programs, public health organizations and other information sources.

Security forces in Cambodia arrested two Cambodia men for organizing a kidney selling ring in Thailand. The men ran an organ trafficking ring that sent 5 people to hospitals in Thailand with fake documents in order to have their kidneys removed.

According to police officials, the men sold the kidney’s for $10,000 (325,000 Thai Baht). To the human sellers who sold their kidneys, the men paid them between $3,000 to $5,000.

According to various news reports, a man from Lebanon was offering people up to $55,000 if they were a match for a liver transplant.

The man, reportedly a mayor from a Lebanon city, arraigned for various people to have a liver compatibility test in Valencia, Spain. The tests reportedly cost $16,000 to conduct. After a match was found, the mayor reportedly offered up to $55,000 to the person in order for the liver transplant operation to take place.

Due to the ban on paying for organ transplants, the operation did not take place.

According to media reports, a refugee from Syria reportedly sold his kidney to organ traffickers for $5,000.

The broker who arraigned the sale of the organ reportedly received $2,000. The trafficker told the press that he has arraigned 35 black market organ sales.

Previously, another refugee told the press that he sold his kidney for $7,000, while the broker who arraigned the sale received $700.

Selling organs is just one of the many black market activities that is taking place in Syrian refugee camps. Women are offering sex in order to receive money to survive and fathers are selling off their daughters to wealthy men.

As the conflict in Syria continues, refugees continue to turn to the black market in order to survive and generate money. It was previously reported that women were turning to prostitution, and the men were selling their daughters to other men.

In November 2013, it was reported that refugees from Syria were selling their kidneys in Lebanon to brokers in order to make money. According to a report in Der Spiegal, a man stated that he sold his kidney for $7,000. The customers who purchased the kidney and pay for the operations reportedly pays $15,000.

The kidney broker who arranges the transactions gets a $700 commission.

According to a kidney broker in the region, there are more sellers than buyers in the region.

In China, around 40 million people believe the ages of 20 to 40 have been diagnosed as having fertility problems. Health experts are attributing problems with men’s sperm to severe environmental pollution in China. According to the doctor of Shanghai’s main sperm bank, sperm grows abnormally and stops swimming when pollution is too severe.

In a 10 year study of male infertility in China, two-thirds of the semen at a sperm bank failed to meet the World Health Organization’s standards on healthy sperm count levels.

In addition to a lack of healthy sperm, there is a shortage of willing donors to sperm banks.

Due to the shortage, women are turning to the black market in order to obtain sperm. According to press reports, woman are willing to pay up to $4,900 (30,000 Yuan) for sperm.

Security agencies in Brazil registered 263 cases of human trafficking in the first half of 2013. The number of cases reported was 1,500 percent higher than the 17 human trafficking cases reported in the first half of 2012.

170 cases between January to June 2013 involved foreign nationals being trafficked into Brazil, while 90 cases were of domestic trafficking.

Of the international cases, 42 were for labor trafficking, 2 were of organ trafficking, and the rest were for sex trafficking.

64 of the domestic trafficking cases were for sex trafficking, 25 for labor trafficking and 1 case of illegal adoptions.

Police in Turkey broke up an organ trafficking ring that was operating across the country. According to media reports, the traffickers were purchasing livers and kidneys for $10,000 (20,000 Turkish Liras) from people who wanted to sell their organs. The gang found these sellers through postings on the Internet.

The traffickers would then take the organs and sell them to medical patients who needed the organs. These patients paid up to $20,000 (40,000 Liras), giving the traffickers a $10,000 profit.

In the first seven months of 2013, criminal justice programs in Guatemala reported that 22 children were kidnapped or stolen in the country.

The children are reportedly taken for the purpose of illegal adoptions and organ trafficking. Hospital workers such as doctors and midwives are reportedly involved in the black market trade and assist the kidnappers by creating fake identification papers such as birth certificates.